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Woman shoplifterflees in wheelchair

Winona Ryder wannabe crashes through glass, bites pursuers in getaway

In a chase that sounds typical of a Hollywood movie starring Winona Ryder, a woman in a wheelchair went on a wild ride of terror after being spotted shoplifting in a grocery store.

According to Norway’s Aftenposten, the woman put her motorized wheelchair in high gear to escape from the market, crashing through a glass door and shaking off pursuers along the way.

“I managed to catch up with her and grabbed onto the chair’s handles, but could only hang on for 100 meters or so,” store employee Geir Inge Nes told newspaper Verdens Gang. “She sharply turned the chair and we nearly crashed into a car. I fell off and couldn’t take any more.”

According to Aftenposten, witnesses at the store in Sandnes, Norway, described the incident as a scene taken right out of a Hollywood action film.

Around 1:30 p.m. on Monday, a store security guard spotted the woman allegedly tucking items into a bag. When she later cruised past the cash register line without stopping to pay, he tried to stop her.

According to the report, the woman powered past him in her chair and attempted to crash through one side of the store’s double glass exit door. It didn’t break, so she backed up and tried crashing through the other side.

Those doors shattered, sending splinters of glass flying. The alleged shoplifter then sped off through the parking lot.

After Nes gave up the chase, three other employees continued the pursuit, which moved from the parking lot to a busy city street.

“She was driving like a maniac,” Asle Hellvik told Verdens Gang. “When she headed out into the street against a red light, several cars had to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting her.”

Hellvik thought the mayhem had ended when the pursuers cornered the woman in a bus terminal. He grabbed the key from the wheelchair’s ignition.

“But then she bit me in the thumb and hit me in the face,” said Hellvik, adding that the attack caused him to drop the key.

According to the report, the woman retrieved the key, restarted her motor and took off again, with two store employees hanging onto the back of her chair. They gave up the chase after the woman started zigzagging around the terminal.

“It got so dangerous they had to hop off,” said Hellvik.

Police reportedly are searching for the woman now, aided by descriptions of both the alleged shoplifter and her chair.